Monthly Archives: April 2014

Every parent’s nightmare is fixing up a healthy lunchbox for their young kid who is unable to make a wise decision for himself when it comes to food selection at the school canteen. Striking the balance between taste and nutrition is the most challenging aspect when designing a menu for the kids’ lunchbox.

Here are a few healthy and fresh lunch box ideas for parents of picky eaters. Most of the options mentioned below are easy to prepare and fun to eat. Moreover they remain fresh for a long time, so you don’t have to worry about stuffing them into a lunchbox which is going to remain closed for a long time.

Mouth-Watering Sweet Chilli Chicken Pockets

The ingredients needed to prepare this delicious lunch box filler come prepared from the grocery store or you can easily store them ahead of time. This recipe is a great way to disguise a lot of healthy vegetables and the bread provides the necessary energy source to keep your child active throughout the school time.

To prepare this snack, you require a packet of pita pockets, some cream cheese, a teaspoon of sweet chilli sauce, some baby spinach and lettuce or shredded cabbage leaves, julienned strips of cucumber, a bit of boiled and shredded chicken, some coarsely grated carrot and of course a good amount of cheddar to hide everything.

Cut the breads in half and then open them with care to make semi-circle pita pockets. Spread the cream cheese inside. Mix all the vegetables with the chicken and fill the pockets. Dash some sweet chilli sauce and then add cheese in the end. You can wrap each individually in butter paper or enclose them in food grade zipper bags.

Energizing Red Fruit and Vanilla Yogurt Salad

This is again a very simple option that takes moments to prepare but is loaded with nutrition. Furthermore, it looks very inviting because of the sharp contrasts in colours. The ingredients are thoughtfully combined to provide the kids with energy and health.

To make this salad, cut the watermelon into neat cubes. Simply add equal amounts of raspberries, strawberries and red grapes to these cubes into a bowl and mix. Now take a portion and enclose in small food grade container to be placed inside the lunchbox. Top with fresh vanilla yogurt and seal the lid.

Delicious Noodle Salad

Kids love noodles; so you can prepare this salad with fresh hokkien noodles. For this salad, you need to julienne a carrot, capsicum and cucumber. Also you require cooked and shredded chicken to match the julienne strips. All you need to do is combine the ingredients, toss them together and season with chilli sauce and salt-reduced soy sauce. You can drizzle ketchup over it if your kids prefer it.

These were only a few of the healthy options when you are thinking of snacks to be added to the lunchboxes of your kids. You can add or take out any of the ingredients from the above dishes according to your kid’s choice.

While the spring marks the beginning of a new year, a new season and new life and is a season of rejoicing, something related to it is always dreaded and that is the annual spring cleaning. No matter how big or small your house or apartment is, you always wish the spring cleaning is a few days later so that you are able to muster up the courage and strength to go about it. But the annual spring cleaning session doesn’t have to be all that dreadful if you follow these simple tips.

Know exactly when you are going to start the spring cleaning so that you don’t put it off for another day. Often people keep putting off the spring cleaning to the next day and to the day following that. Mark a day on your calendar when you wish to start the spring cleaning timely so that there is no escaping it and so that you can schedule everything else according to it.

One of the primary reasons where people go wrong and why they get frustrated through cleaning is that they are already tired when they begin this humongous task. Because you have marked the spring cleaning D-day on the calendar, make sure you sleep on time the night before so that you get an early and fresh start into the next day. You will see that it is going to make a huge difference. Once you have had a completely relaxing night of sleep, you are going to feel rejuvenated and fresh and most of all, ready for work.

The third most important tip is that you should begin with a room that you enjoy spending your time in. Turning on the television while cleaning the living room is certainly not advisable, even if it is your favorite room. Start with your bedroom or kitchen; whichever doesn’t scare you off.

And of course there is no spring cleaning book that states you should go about the spring cleaning thing all on your own. Start on a weekend or holiday and involve everyone in the house in the cleaning by allocating age-appropriate jobs to them. It doesn’t matter how big or small the job is, because every help counts. You can ask your child to clean up his/her drawers in the room, segregate the new and old magazines and newspapers into different racks or simply remove the pet hair from the floor with the help of a squeegee (it really helps).

Last but not the least, you can always ask for professional help. Around the time of spring, there are many deals up for grabs relating to spring cleaning. You can minimize the cost by going for one of these deals or by asking them to clean only the parts of the home that you find difficult like the washrooms or the greasy areas in the kitchen.

Spring cleaning doesn’t have to be a difficult task; you must know how to go about it.